UN Watchdog Sounds Alarm Over Drone Attacks Near Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Plant

The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (file photo)

Drone attacks targeting the Russian-held Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (ZNPP) in Ukraine must stop, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on July 3 after the plant's Russian management reported strikes near the facility and the injury of eight ZNPP employees. "ZNPP informed IAEA of several drone strikes, injuring workers at Enerhodar electrical sub-station and starting fires in forest near ZNPP switchyard," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on X. The statement did not specify whose drones carried out the attack. The head of the Russian nuclear authority, Aleksei Likhachev, called what he said was a Ukrainian attack on a substation near ZNPP an “ostentatious violation” of IAEA regulations on nuclear safety. There has been no comment from the Ukrainian side.